This is the Blog for MORRIS BERMAN, the author of "Dark Ages America". It includes current publications and random thoughts about U.S. Foreign Policy, including letters and reactions to publications from others.
A cultural historian and social critic, MORRIS BERMAN is the author of "Wandering God" and "The Twilight of American Culture". Since 2003 he has been a visiting professor in sociology at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
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September 07, 2019

Shane

One of the most iconic American films is Shane, starring Alan Ladd, which came out in 1953. I remember seeing it around that time, or maybe shortly after, although I cannot now recall what I thought of it at my tender age. Oddly enough, I ran across a copy of the book on which it is based in a cafe in Mexico City a few days ago, and read the text for the first time. I don't know how faithfully the film follows the novel--66 years later it's hard for me to remember much of the details--but I think the basic narrative is the same: a quiet, rugged, handsome cowboy comes into town, rids it of the bad guys, and then rides off into the sunset.
I call the story "iconic" because it seems to encapsulate key elements of the American value system. First, the basic plot line--the story of America, as it were: Good Conquers Evil. There is no complexity here, no character development; most of the dramatis personae are cardboard figures, and indeed, the tale is told from the viewpoint of a young boy.
Second, Shane is the ultimate loner. Nothing is revealed of his past, and nothing is said about who he actually is. He is self-contained and silent: the rock. He comes out of nowhere, does what he has to do, and then disappears into nowhere. He has no family or community ties, and doesn't really want any. He offers support to the boy's parents, but he himself depends on no one. He is described in almost animal terms: alert, powerful, always ready for action. Shane represents the radical individualism of the American West, the ultimate self-made man.
Third, no one in the story has any intellectual interests whatsoever. No one reads, no one owns a book, and no one has any interest in the world around them beyond their immediate physical environment.
What the narrative tells the American reader or filmgoer is that this is what a true hero consists of. The boy is starstruck by Shane; he wants to grow up to be just like him. I imagine films with John Wayne or Clint Eastwood have had a similar impact on the American psyche. But exactly what is it that is being idealized? Shane might as well have landed from the moon. He is a one-dimensional character, bereft of all human ties. His horse and his gun are apparently the only serious attachments in his life. He's a kind of atom, floating in interstellar space--an ideal millions of Americans aspire to. From inside the narrative, Shaneworld is dignified, heroic (and very masculine). Looking at if from the outside, however, it comes off as a species of insanity--alienation taken to its logical conclusion.
Joe Bageant used to say that Americans lived in a kind of hologram. I have, on a number of occasions, likened American life to a sphere lined with mirrors, such that American values are constantly reflected back, and where no light (or air) from the outside ever gets in. Shaneworld is very much like that, and in the end it can only suffocate, and implode (which is what is going on today). For this America--our America--is a mythological construct, and very few of its citizens manage to get beyond the myth, which is essentially a form of (very successful) indoctrination. Shane is probably the myth in its purest form.
"Don't go, Shane, don't go!" the boy cries at the end of the film. But Shane goes. He has, in effect, been apotheosized as a god. To stay, after all, would have been human.
(c)Morris Berman, 2019

147 Comments:

It's just a book or movie. Most living Americans have never seen or read it and couldn't explain it if they had. Of course it does have some relevance to America in that it takes place there but really not any more than any other American fable, say "The Wizard of Oz" or "Tom Sawyer" or a really seminal piece of literature, Melville's "The Confidence Man".

Nice observations about Shane. I worked at a video rental store in my mid 20s when I went back to college to try getting away from crappy jobs (afterwards I discovered most all jobs are pretty crappy, it's just a matter of degree). Anywy, I saw Shane at that time as well as many other westerns and various movies.

I'd like to add another American western movie standard I noticed beyond the lone stranger who comes and goes remaining unknown to those he encounters. The character is the loner who shows up in a town and has enthusiastic, loyal friends from the past. The past is only light touched upon as needed. Once defeating the bad guys, for which there is no gray area as to who is good and bad, the loner goes back to being a loner who apparently moves on to the next town of loyal friends troubled by bad guys. They are part of a community for mere moments, then move on without really being part of a community

Movies along this line include:

Rio BravoEl Dorado (these two essentially are the same movie, but I still like Dean Martin's character in Rio Bravo)

Smokey and the Bandit: Burt Reynolds as the Bandit was the loveable passer-thru.

The Blacklist: James Spader as Raymond Reddington has loyal, connected friends in every neighborhood of every town around the globe.

Alan Ladd was very self-conscious about his shortness. Elevated heels would help, but easier was to have taller actors walk next to him while they were in a trench. Can you imaginesuch a sight in the movie! What does this mean for a true 'mur'kan, tall, virile, patriotic, and a killer? The only trustworthy movies about 'mur'ka were the ones writtenby blacklisted Jewish reds.

Just went to a pow wow today – the contrast between the collectivist Native American culture clashing with the individualist culture of Shane is stark – even now. Once my Native American supervisor and I were looking at a social skills curriculum for children and found that the Native American kids in our community scored low on the assessment because they were not competitive and individualistic enough – not wanting to dominate others and win was labelled as unhealthy or defective - so we threw out that program and made our own!

The kind of cultural appropriation I despise is when I see white people running “vision quests” and sweat lodge ceremonies – and charging for it. As if genocide wasn’t enough, now they want to loot the culture for profit - and sometimes kill the customers in the process!

Shane is the myth, Blood Meridian by Cormac Mccarty the reality (imho). I'm not a great reader, not even sure how much I retain, but I had a visceral reaction reading that book. The brutal gutter violence left an impression on me that I've never forgotten and remember thinking at the time "this is probably how it was."

Any Elton John fans the bio-opera Rocketman is worth the price of admission. Taron Edgerton is Captain Fantastic.

@MB--here is a video of the real Bill Hicks using the famous Jack Palance scene from "Shane" as a metaphor for arming Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War. "Pick up the gun."

Once again, a notorious example of how every institution in America is thoroughly corrupt and needs to be raised to the ground has come to light as the MIT Media Lab has been caught taking millions from Jeffrey Epstein after he became a convicted pedophile and deliberately covering it up: "The documents...show that the lab was aware of Epstein’s history—in 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution—and of his disqualified status as a donor. They also show that...lab employees took numerous steps to keep Epstein’s name from being associated with the donations he made or solicited." Even every dumbass prog's favorite billionaire was involved: "In October, 2014, the Media Lab received a two-million-dollar donation from Bill Gates; Ito wrote in an internal e-mail, 'This is a $2M gift from Bill Gates directed by Jeffrey Epstein.' Cohen replied, 'For gift recording purposes, we will not be mentioning Jeffrey’s name as the impetus for this gift'.”

And lastly: 18-year-old accidentally shot by mother after returning from college. Actual advice from the PO-lice: "Chief Norman said he tried to think of what advice to give in such a difficult case, 'If you realize someone has a gun for protection, and they're not expecting you -- announce yourself when you enter the home, or even if you're getting up to get a drink of water in the middle of the night, just announce yourself'." Hey, MOM, it's just ME getting a drink. Put the gun down please. Fucking insanity.

It is interesting that Americans love solitary heroes like Shane but also love shows about people spending time with family and friends. I was never a big fan but apparently the TV show Friends is still very popular, especially with young people, and not just in the United States but globally.

https://qz.com/quartzy/1687411/why-friends-is-still-so-popular/

I think people crave deeper connections with others but these are becoming harder to obtain due to technological changes like the advent of smartphones. That Friends was created by Americans is interesting because even in the 1990s social life in the United States had already declined significantly. This decline was also likely due to technology, specifically television. Jean Twenge pointed this out in a FAQ response to the common argument that “things were always like this.”

It amazes me that so many people refuse to believe that change happens and that sometimes it is not for the better. People don’t like the idea that the system they are living under is in decline and could possibly collapse. They want to believe that the system is eternal. This is especially true of Americans. I imagine that the Romans must have felt the same way about their empire. I guess decline is too depressing to think about but I think living in reality is better than just pretending that everything is fine.

Fun video for the song, the level of violence behind every scene-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7APmRkatEU

Trump is in this tradition of Shane. Except for his addiction to celebrity adoration (of him by others). So he will never ride off into the sunset after his work is done. The US can't even get this part of its mythology right any more. As with everything these days, what is tragic in something like Shane is now farcical in something like Trump.

Doctor, Worse than Shane is the movie Will Penny in which a 50 year old cowhand has a chance to settle down with a beautiful woman (Joan Hackett) and a boy who loves him like a father. Instead, he leaves them to continue as a cowhand. He has lines such as "It's too late for me", "I wish you luck", "I'm too old to have a family". He also says, "What would I do if I broke my hand?" Joan replies, "Love us. Isn't that what love is for?" He not only leaves but leaves them to handle a brutal winter alone in the wilderness. Oh, he tells a sidekick to give them the $50 he is owed; how typical to think money can take the place of love. The boy is so heartbroken he can't even manage to wave goodbye to Will. Comments say how touching the scene is. Better to say how insane the scene is.

Who is the real hero of "Shane"? Would it not be the boy, whose p.o.v. the story is told from? And does he turn out to be heroic in any way. I'll have to revisit Shane and see for myself. I've actually been thinking about the short novel lately. I have a copy buried in my crawl space. Thanks for bringing this up. Cheers.

Except that Hollywood's not a monolith. Shannon was born and raised in Lexington, KY; flyover country. He's like many, many actors and professionals who have flocked to Hollywood from Middle America.

I have sympathy for the aggrieved (and liberals had a hand in this mess). Some of these folks want to "burn down the house" in order to build something better for everyone - but many do not; they're after something sinister.

In spite of the decay in the system, their numbers still offer them some democratic possibilities to address their situation. But they have surrounded themselves in a toxic narrative that tells them that organizing and protest are unmanly and feminine; that's for bed-wettin' liberals. That wouldn't be Shane-like. They have a contempt for learning and education, so they're unable to creatively handle nuance. Without being able to handle nuance, they have no agency. With no agency, they seek a powerful Daddy figure. Paraphrasing Eric Hoffer: "there is no hope for the impotent in the actual and the possible". It's becoming clearer every day that democracy is not what these folks want.We've seen this before. We know where it's headed.

As for the "blue dildo" vs. the "red dildo" thing, to me it's a false equivalency - by an order of many magnitudes. I can't equate the progs with the folks I describe above.

Morris! (@mb) The plaintive words at the beginning of your last paragraph are a coda for America on its deathbed. It's as if the starstruck boy (and one of the worst actors in Hollywood history) has grown up and is begging the U.S. of A. not to die. That cry, "Don't go, Shane, don't go" is so patently pathetic it's unforgettable—and has stayed with me ever since I saw Shane in a UCLA screenwriting class taught by a Wisconsin cowboy with five divorces.

Lana Del Rey (aka Elizabeth Woolridge Grant) may have been mentioned here before--I don't know how into popular culture the blog is (I'm pretty disconnected myself). But when I saw that headline, I wondered if this is another case where artistic endeavors speak to forbidden subjects (e.g. American decline).

The Atlantic review is mentioned in another article by NPR critic Ann Powers (for the record, Ms. Del Rey hated this review):

"...NFR! is Del Rey's revenge against those who would misinterpret her, a fully realized...album offering a critique of 21st-century decadence...an 'obituary for America' that still extends some hope that [it] can be redeemed."

Yeah, lots of luck with that.

The ambition of the record--clocking in at just under 70:00, this is double-album territory--makes me curious. I'd be interested to hear from other Wafers about this or other pop culture that reflects the zeitgeist (overused word, I know).

Shane is certainly a classic tale about American exceptionalism—we seem to be the only people on the planet who believe in such an extreme form of individualism. Perhaps the best western I’ve seen that reflects American values is Michael Winner’s “Lawman”. Burt Lancaster is a small-town marshal who comes to a Texas town to bring back half a dozen or so miscreants who shot up his town weeks earlier and killed an old man. It turns out this Texas is a company town—the company being the local cattle baron, a man named Bronson (played brilliantly by Lee J. Cobb). The town’s sheriff (played by Robert Ryan in one of his last roles) happens to be an old acquaintance of Lancaster and he tells Lancaster plainly that neither the men nor Bronson will surrender. After all, Bronson’s rich and the town knows who puts food in their mouths so no one will help him. Lancaster, being high-minded and simple, doesn’t flinch; he apparently runs into this all the time. The rest of the movie comprises various attempts on Lancaster’s life, the good town folk refusing to help him, and Bronson’s crew debating how best to kill him (even though they know that the most they face is a fine for the old man’s death).

There are three very good scenes that encapsulate the American ethos. One occurs when Ryan and Lancaster talk about gunfighters and the utter stupidity of revenge. You get the sense that these two men understand quite well the trash culture they live in yet feel powerless to change it. Another occurs inside a saloon where Ryan expresses to Lancaster his disgust of the locals because they completely ignore Lancaster even though he is the one who is upholding the law. Ryan says that if Lancaster were a gunfighter, everyone would be buying him drinks. “They need you, but they hate you. They want you to enforce the law, but only so long as it doesn’t burn a hole in their pocket.” says Ryan. The third scene is a conversation between Bronson and his son Jason. Jason wants to kill Lancaster because what happened in another town is none of their concern(!) Bronson admits he wants no more killing, but just like Ryan and Lancaster, he seems unable, or unwilling, to make any sort of change. Lee J. Cobb does a terrific job portraying the tired, worried, yet determined Bronson who won’t be intimidated. Needless to say, the film ends in a big shootout, which only Lancaster survives. To me, the movie becomes more relevant each year as Americans scratch their heads trying to figure out why their society is dying, yet are unable to see what is in front of their eyes—just like Ryan, Lancaster, and Cobb.

Meanwhile, the US Open final unfolds and the Spanish Bull takes down yet another prey to win his #19th Grand Slam.

Whereas not a lone cowboy, Nadal embodies the Gladiator of collapsing Rome entertaining the masses with sheer brutality on the tennis court. As Meghan Markle and Michael Douglas applaud in the stands watching the spectacle unfold, society implodes outside the arena.

Nadal is a great champion and an example of sportsmanship on and off the court, but the guy has ZERO charisma whatsoever and is full of nervous tics and unresolved issues. He is the embodiment of what it takes to "make it" in the modern world: bottle everything up and be as brutal and efficient as possible.

"My yelling fire in a crowded building didn't put any obligation on people to go stampeding towards the door."

I really don't know if it gets any worse than American lawyers. At least business types just want to rip people off. American lawyers want to rip people off while also destroying any basic sense of sanity that may still remain in the population. They want to get you to believe utter nonsense.

I think part of the problem is the myth of the efficacy of the law in general. The founders wanted to correct bad humanity with a legal structure (Constitution). In truth, the more a society depends on written laws the more likely its values are total bullshit.

Give dumb, aggressive, pathologically evasive people beautifully formulated laws and they will use them to explain how everything is actually *your fault* for assuming their liability.

MBagain spot on comments on the American psyche. Speaking of Eastwood didn't he graduate from the Mt Rushmore School of acting? The more I look into the American character the more I find that the Lone Ranger never left town and continues to live in the deepest recesses of the American mindset.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with it, I would like to give the highest recommendation for Jacques Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence." I read it around 17 years ago, and have recently begun listening to it on CD. (You can get the unabridged version on CD at Amazon for 15 dollars or so, and the narrator is pretty engaging.) At any rate, it is one of those truly rare and wonderful books that don't cross your path too often, and I think it will appeal very much to readers of this blog.

Barzun traces the West's decline from the high point of the Renaissance, down to the present day. Just about every page is packed full with brilliant observations and shrewd insights about the great figures of Western cultural life. Another thing that makes it such an intellectual feast, are the countless other books that it leads you to. Every few pages Barzun will say, "The book to read is", and then he points you to, say, a work on the Medieval artisan, the Gutenberg Revolution, or Milton's Satan (Just discovered this last book by by William Emson, and it looks quite fascinating.) Barzun's recommendations have already given me a several foot high stack for my "to read" pile!

Unlike Dr. Berman, Barzun focuses more on the West as a whole, and its gradual decline into decadence. But America certainly gets adequate attention. In any case, it complements quite nicely the various overarching themes that we discuss here. Incidentally, I'm astonished that Barzun completed the book when he was over 100 years old--an impressive achievement by any standard. Of course, whether Jacques could still have withstood the rigors of an Arctic copulation with Sarah Palin at that advanced age is perhaps doubtful. (Perhaps with Viagra and no meese watching? The meese can be distracting!) Still, what a man and what a book!

Excellent little docu on Hungarian Gypsies circa early 1970s, notice they are absolutely obligated by their social norms to share, no ifs ands or buts. They're horribly poor, living in the kind of wasteland it's supposed major war would leave us in.

Just now I watched the movie "Threads" about a theoretical atomic bomb attack on Britain, which is on archive dot org for now; it's rare to get to watch it. The assumption in Threads is humans, by which is meant British humans of course, will at the soonest opportunity become hyper-individualistic brutes.

@Pilgrim--Just because Shannon was raised in KY doesn't mean that like so many in Hollywood he hasn't forgotten where he came from. It's right there in his own callous words: "I can't get a job." Yeah, because progs and Dems, led by Obama and the Clintons, abandoned the unions an enacted "free" trade policies that allowed tens of millions of good paying factory jobs to be shipped overseas only so their rich Wall Street buddies could get richer. I grew up in Middle America as well, but unlike asshole Shannon, I'm appalled by what the progs have done to my hometown, where the economy has been utterly destroyed and the only jobs left are prison guard, Walmart greeter and meth cook. I knew a lot of good people growing up--and many of them got utterly fucked starting with NAFTA.

As for your second paragraph--you're making an awful lot of assertions about people you don't even know. Ever talk to Trump supporters? I do on a regular basis, just like I talk to progs (have to, live in a prog stronghold). Not all are hardcore racist assholes. In fact most are just like the progs: greedy, materialistic, hustling douchebags who live in McMansions, drive big ass pick-em-up trucks and SUVs, frequently jet around the world on vacation, fret about which snooty college their pampered kids will get into, and all usually have a few token minority "friends" in their social circles. The difference between the two is that the Trumpies make no pretense about who they are, whereas the progs think their shit doesn't stink. It should be noted that data from the 2016 election has shown that Trump's strongest support came from well off Republican suburbanites, NOT rust belt down and outers.

And as for whether blue dildos or red dildos are worse, you're right it's a false equivalency: because whereas as both dildos will fuck you if you aren't rich and powerful, blue dildos like Obama and Hillary will whisper sweet nothings in your ear while doing it.

Sorry to have confused you; I shd have put quotation marks around "our." Of course, America is "mine" by virtue of birthplace, but I have no spiritual or patriotic identification with it. Like virtually all the Wafers on this blog, I regard the US as a genocidal war machine run by a malignant plutocracy and cheered on by clueless morons. No way I can identify with any of *that*.

"It is about the capitalists running scared. They know the reigning ideology of neoliberalism no longer has any credibility. Its lies have been exposed. They know the ruling institutions, including the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, are dysfunctional and despised. They know the media, Wall Street and the big banks are distrusted and hated. They know the criminal justice system, which criminalizes poverty and legalizes corporate fraud, is a sham. They know social mobility is, in effect, nonexistent. And, most importantly, they know that the financial system, built on the scaffolding of trillions lent to them by the government at marginal interest rates, is not sustainable and will trigger another recession, if not a depression. They also know they are to blame."

~Chris Hedges, Sep 09, 2019

Can anyone/anything save Hedges at this point? Brain surgery performed by Ben Carson is the only corrective, as far as I can see.

Miles

ps: dear Shaneka:

Even after all these yearsI miss you when your not here I wish you were truly near, dear Shaneka

Even if it's just one nightI miss you and it don't feel rightI wish you were here tonight, dear Shaneka

Even if it's just an hourI wilt like a fading flowerMy luv 4 u will never sour, dear Shaneka

Even when I'm Miles at sea Or sittin' in a New York DeliYour spirit's watching over me, dear Shaneka

Even when I watch TVA hole where yr supposed to beThere's nobody lying next to me, dear Shaneka

My own feeling is that every American shd be out to hurt every other American, with any makeshift weapon at hand: bowling balls, frying pans, platters of chopped liver. Any American not out to hurt people isn't much of an American, as far as I'm concerned. I have also written the Mint, asking them to change the slogan on all legal tender: WE HURT PEOPLE.

Mil-

WE HURT PEOPLE (and ducks). Face it, it's a very sick society.

Jeff-

A beautiful poem; I cried. But next time, pls put in separate post to observe half-pg rule, thanks. (I also urge you to do one for Lorenzo Riggins.) As for Hedges, poor shmuck: one hasta feel sorry for him, I suppose, but this kind of brain damage is actually consistent for him. I recall at the beginning of Occupy Wall St., he said similar things: the capitalists were looking at the demonstrators thru plate glass windows and were quaking in their boots. Yeah, fa sure. What the financiers were actually doing was laughing at the demonstrators, because they knew the difference between power--which they held--and theater, which is all the OWS folks cd come up with. His delusions remain fixed. Repeatedly on this blog, I've asked, What wd it take to wake this guy up? And the answer is obvious: it just can't be done. His stuff now borders on full-on dementia. The progs love it, tho.

Jack, jj-

I need help from you and other Wafers in composing a letter to Sarah. E.g.:

"Dear Sarah: You don't know me, but I understand you are now available. I don't wish to marry you, but I'd like to shag you silly on an ice floe, among the meese. Would that be of any interest? Pls let me know asap. ps: Do you happen to know Ed Meese?"

Susan-

Oops! We have a half-pg limit on this blog. Suggest you compress by 50%, or send in 2 installments, 24 hrs apart. Thanks.

Pilgrim-

Compress by 1/3, re-send. Thanks.

Louis-

Fabulous! Thank you.

A few quotes:

"The love of possessions is a disease with them."--Sitting Bull

"With an immense zest...they begin shopping...They plunge into it as one plunges into a career; as a class they talk, think and dream possessions."--H.G. Wells

"...the people got lost in a mechanical wilderness, like children making over pretty things, gadgets, helicopters, rockets; emphasizing the wrong items, emphasizing machines instea of how to run the machines....That way of life proved itself wrong and strangled itself with its own hands."--Ray Bradbury

"Wendell Berry’s essays serve as documents of the bewildering destruction in which our everyday lives involve us & as testaments to those qualities...that resist the destruction": a searching, brilliant essay on the work of Wendell Berry

Thanks for the ref. I wanna thank everyone on this blog who takes the time to post refs and biblio. As someone pointed out, the blog has, over the yrs, become a rather large archive for great rdg material. So thanks to u all, and keep those citations coming!

Low-income Americans have significantly shorter lives compared to wealthy Americans according to a Government Accountability Office study. Granted the study was commissioned by Bernie Sanders, I don’t think the results will surprise too many people.

Symphony concerts sold out with many younger folks attending (10-30$) unlike the anemic geriatric concerts in the states with elitist rip off ticket prices.

Met some young Taiwanese police who asked why the US is so dangerous, violent, and everyone loves guns? We stated: B/c the US is the world's garbage collector and filled with idiots who enjoy being idiots. Not only do they not care, they do not care that they do not care.

@Millenial Realist--thank you for posting that horrific article about how the University of Virginia's health system is vastly overcharging patients and then using Virginia's draconian bill collection laws to file lawsuits that are driving people into homelessness and destitution. They even fucked over one of the own nurses, and seized her house right after she died fighting them. It should be noted that UVA is located in Charlottesville (where the infamous Nazi rally occurred). The place is about as deeply blue as any in the country--and went for Killary by about 85% of the vote. No doubt most of the health care professionals and administrators who are doing these things are good little Dems and progs, and certainly their has been no outcry from the students, the way there was when a few dozen Nazi losers came to town two years ago. Yep, the whole place is just one big ol' blue dildo aimed at the citizens of Virginia, unimpeded by the five blue dildos who run the state as governor, lt. gov, attorney general and both senators.

The UVA story plus this story about a powerful pedophilia ring in Omaha are just two more examples of how every American institution is thoroughly corrupt and needs to be destroyed. This ring appears not only to have had substantial political protection locally, but also in Washington that may have reached all the way up into the Reagan and Daddy Bush White Houses. Given how that latter evil old fuck couldn't help but grab every woman who came near him in his dotage, is there any real doubt that he was also, like Clinton, a big time sexual predator? The difference between this case as the Epstein saga is that the FBI apparently engineered the coverup and there is at least circumstantial evidence that witnesses have been murdered to keep them quiet. Red dildos, blue dildos--either way you get it in the end.

The photographer Robert Frank died recently. For those who don't know his book 'The Americans,' you should. I know this blog is more literary and academic (and youtube idiotic behavior!), but the photo book is probably one of the best WAFer summations you can find. And shot in the mid-1950s. Racism, militarism, dumb empty gazes, cars going nowhere fast, drugs, flag-waving, Hollywood, advertising, sexism, he saw it all at its peak.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/arts/robert-frank-dead.html

I often say that with climate change, we are simply at the 'fill in the blank' stage now. Arctic permafrost melting? 2017, check. Reefs bleaching, 2015 check. Climate refugees, 2010 check....

Franks's book is like that- it's all just filling in the blanks for the last 60 years. Do try to find a copy of the actual book, The Americans. He went on to do films and in many ways the isolated images lose much on their own. Like pulling sentences out of a well-crafted essay. Still, here is a video of someone flipping through the book to give you a sense.

This from Andrew Bacevich, retired Army colonel, on how the US will likely repeat abandoning their Afghan allies as readily as they did their Vietnamese allies. This quote really gets close to the root of what Americans are about:

"Near the end of his famed novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald described two of his privileged characters, Tom and Daisy, as “careless people” who “smashed up things and creatures” and then “retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” to “let other people clean up the mess they had made.” That description applies to the United States as a whole, especially when Americans tire of a misguided war. We are a careless people."

And going full Orwellian, thugs are now referred to as "prospective diners" ! What's not to love?!

Sarah will have to change all the monograming on her towels but I'm sure she won't mind a bit. And you'll be the proud stepfather of 5 (or was it 6?) well educated, well behaved children and countless grandchildren. I wish you joy and really, you must promise to post a link to the wedding album on line.

Thank you for an interesting analysis of Shane. Traditional American household items are guns and the bible. I suspect that the latter is kept in their house to disguise the fact that these people don't read or that they despise learning. They never understood what they read anyway. The ignorant and evil welding of faith and firepower has turned this country into a (white) jihadist nation, hopelessly addicted to violence. And I have no doubt that it will only get worse.

And, as you might have guessed, I'm on the side of the thugs. There can't be too many thugs, imo. Jeff: pls write a poem abt thugs. For example, that song from "South Pacific": "There is nothing like a thug..."

Then there’s the Jimmy Savile case from GB: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/26/jimmy-savile-sexual-abuse-timeline It’s worth noting that Savile was close to the British royal family. Being that no one can get within a mile of the royals without Special Branch knowing how many times a day they fart, it does make you wonder.

As far as Epstein is concerned, my take is that his job was to entrap and compromise the powerful for the intelligence services (Acosta: “I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone,” ...) so they could be blackmailed. It seems that the whole world is a cesspit.

A great tribute to a great man. This is as gd as anything Keats ever wrote, or T.S. Eliot. (I smell hints of "The Wasteland" here.)

Lorenzo Riggins! It's all slim pickin's.

But then: what cd be worse than the firing of John Bolton? He is a horrible human being, just the type of person needed for a country going down the toilet. Bolti, there's so much damage you coulda done! The Waferhood will miss you.

It suddenly occurred to me that the whole Brexit crap, which has been going on for several yrs now, is not going to end. It's impressive to see an entire nation endlessly beating off. The US is not beating off; rather, it's committing suicide. Which actually has some odd dignity to it, unlike masturbation; altho one wishes we wd just finish w/it, once and for all. But it wdn't surprise me if Brexit was on the front page of the British newspapers 5 yrs from now.

Sorry, we're not into that kind of rabid anti-Semitism, updating of the "Protocols," etc. But there are thousands of anti-Semitic blogs out there, dripping with hatred, and I'm sure they'd welcome any contribution you'd care to make.

Found this in a retrospective of Margaret Bourke-White in the Atlantic. One of the pics (#4) is of African American flood victims lined up for food/water, underneath a huge billboard-sized sign that says: "WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING / THERE'S NO WAY LIKE THE AMERICAN WAY", with a picture showing a happy white US family driving along in their car, smiling away. The propaganda has been ubiquitous for decades. If you'd like to see it (and the other photos), here's the link:

Progs however, once the UK leaves on Oct 31st, will keep behaving hysterically for the next 5 years, scream for injustice, initiate lawsuit after lawsuit etc... No one is going to care though apart from Progs and I cannot wait to see the look on their faces once Brexit happens.

@Pilgrim--if liberals are so worthy of sympathy, why are all of their elected leaders such assholes and douchebags? Because liberal Americans are still AMERICANS. As for Shannon, I sincerely hope that a 9.9 quake strikes Hollywood and a giant hole opens and swallows up him and every other formerly Harvey Weinstein-worshipping Hollywood douchebag. If that happened, I would dance a jig and sing, "too bad, suckers, should have moved to Manitoba like you promised you would if Trump won." (Sorry, Canada)

Happy "America Gets a Little Taste of Its Own Medicine" Day, everybody. Sober commentators are fond of saying that Osama Bin Laden "won" because of our reaction to 9/11. Give the man credit--he knew how brutish and utterly stupid his opponents were. I remember in the days that followed how nearly every idiot American said we now had to "unite" behind Bush and thinking: "god, we're fucked." When the little punk invaded Iraq while even many progs and Dums cheered him on, I was well on my way to true Waferdom.

Since we're talking about Western movies, folks here might enjoy a Baffler article on this topic. The earliest films are mentioned, including Shane, High Noon, Red River, etc, as well as Little Big Man and Blazing Saddles. Some interesting points...

- John Wayne and Howard Hawks, who were conservatives, hated the movie High Noon, which was created around the time of the Hollywood blacklist era during McCarthyism. So they created Rio Bravo as a rebuke.

- Thurgood Marshall, while he was travelling throughout the segregated South in the 30's and 40's fighting civil rights cases, loved to watch westerns - in spite of the fact that their protagonists were invariably white.

With today being the anniversary of 9/11 perhaps a motivational message fromWaferdom would be apt. There's no end to such messages:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=motivatiinal+speeches

MB should include: (1)Do as you are told. (2)Do not question authority. (3)Work hardto make money for the elite. (4)Trust in Our Lord. (5)Be patriotic in case you areneeded to die for your country to protect mur'kan lives and property overseas.(6)Do not ask what they are doing overseas (see #2 above).

I recall when "W" won the second time that some wise man advised the threeg's: a getaway plan, gold, and a gun. MB should mention this.

Wafers: Apologies for dropping out for a bit. A life change has kept me preoccupied.

I've seeded a Wafer bibliography, which you can find at https://www.zotero.org/groups/2368520/wafers/items. Zotero is a flexible, feature-rich, open source bibliography manager that, with a little reading of their ample documentation, is reasonably simple to use. The bibliography is viewable by all but editable only by invitation, which I'll happily grant to any Wafer wanting to participate. You'll also have to register to edit.

Dr. B: If you're willing to act as a conduit for email connections, I'd be grateful. If not, we can figure something else out. Either way, I'd like to keep the biblio's business off the blog comments. I'll email you separately to introduce myself properly and answer any questions.

Dan Daniel – thank you for the reference to Bitten by Kris Newby about ticks and biological warfare.

Miles Deli – not only was Fort Detrick involved with LSD and mind control, it was one of the sites for biological warfare.

Bill Hicks – USG is a threat to its citizens.

Pennsylvania has led the nation for Lyme disease for the past seven years. In 2015, I nearly died from Lyme. I spent a week in the hospital where I was diagnosed and prescribed over a month of IV antibiotics, a month in a skilled nursing home, and three weeks of at home care. My neurological version of Lye required physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language therapy. I had to relearn how to walk and talk.

While I tested positive for Lyme, it’s important to know that the Lyme tests frequently produce false-positive and false-negative results. I dare not get bitten again, because my blood has the markers which will make the poor tests even more unreliable.

Did my government do this to me?

Kris Newby’s Navy pilot father warned her to “be careful this book doesn’t get you killed.”

Gladwell is pretty much a charlatan. His 'science' has been debunked by many genuine scholars. I don't have the refs rt now, but check out various reviews. His hip lectures pull in huge sums. More evidence of a collapsing culture.

Shortened version- Saw Shane when I was about same age as little Joey. Identified with him more. From that perspective, many years later, I’ve come to these conclusions:1. Joey admired Shane and wanted to be like him, because Shane took definitive action when threatened unlike his father who seemed like a coward. 2. Like Joey, I wanted Shane to stay. Shane had the “guts” to confront evil head on – like all true red-blooded American males. Some other observations:1. As MB mentions, the film creates a binary system in which the good guys win and the bad guys lose. Another interesting part of that is that the good guys on the sidelines (the father and other homesteaders) seem unable to save themselves, making them dependent on a mysterious force that appears unexpectantly from beyond to protect them against men in black. That’s also true for the “Lawman”. The myth of salvation/liberation from outside is common in ancient religious literature as well – the Exodus, Yahweh the Liberator, Jesus.

2. “Shane” was shot in 1953 at the height of Red Scare and McCarthyism. Some reviewers interpret the main character as America’s best hope of protecting the world from Communism.https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3378&context=utk_graddiss

3. As in 1,000s of American films since, whatever problems the protagonists find themselves with can always be solved by violence. Violence in the service of revenge is America’s birthright.

5. Democratis. Thanks for reference to “Lawman”. another common theme in it and Shane and High Noon – towns people abandon the hero who is left to fight evil on his own.

@Megan: I'm with you on your fandom for Jacques Barzun and his "From Dawn to Decadence." Reading that book took me on a journey that led to Dr. Berman and this blog full of wonderfully well-read contributors.

@Wafers and MB: I'm re-reading Doris Lessing's "Shikasta", a romp through the history of the planet through the eyes of an envoy from Canopus. It must be the seventh time I've read it, mostly for the veiled historical references, but also for the trial of the "white man" toward the end of the book. Given the racial animosities of this era, I needed to see once again how she handled that issue. Come to think of it, the book also describes the main characters' involvement in a type of dual process where many of the destructive global forces are tweaked in a positive way by key individuals operating without the sanction or knowledge of the "authorities." Lessing was a flat-out prophet in her later years IMHO. So much of what she wrote about as fiction has come to pass. See also The Four-Gated City, Memoirs of A Survivor, and Briefing for a Descent Into Hell (mentioned here before).

So, my 80-year old mom called about an hour ago and starts telling me about life back in the cornfields of downstate Illinois where I grew up and which is good ol' Trump country. I hear about all of these people, young and old as it doesn't seem to matter, with diabetes, dementia, obesity (400+ pounders who are in their 30s), life savings being eaten up by healthcare costs and nursing homes, outlandishly expensive medications, 50-year old "kids" who do nothing at all to help their decaying and dying parents, people screwed out of pensions, the now 50-year oldish "kids" that grew up with me who died from heroin overdoses and alcoholism, etc... Geezus, I can hardly pick up the phone when she calls anymore. Ironically, when I talk about moving or eventually retiring to someplace outside the US all I hear is "why would you want to do that?" Sorry, no link. Just a front lines report from the Heartland of Hell while trying to processes all of this "exceptionalism".

Why Shane? Why that type? From the pt of view of embracing our sick culture, it supports the emotionally lacking... lacking in empathy, connection. But, from the pt of view of rejecting our sick culture (unconsciously, mind you) it encourages disconnection because relationships are so twisted, petty, cruel & just down right painful, that it makes sense to go it alone. We have tended to call this "dysfunctional", but I say, it's functionality the way our culture teaches functionality. If life is a fight to be won, .. get control... Then what would we expect from people? I'm not excusing the America, but I see people... human beings with the same limitations as all human beings.

My fear is that we have so committed ourselves to a mythology of war, of dualism, which, for intelligent, sensitive people is too hard to bear, that we may have drawn from our dna, the traits of the predator & prey. The sensitive folks I know have not had any children. Over thousands of years of this mythology have we rewarded the predator/prey genes, so thoroughly, that it's too late to save the species? H.G. Wells may have been, generally, right!

"What might not have happened to men? What if cruelty had grown into a common passion? What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness [not the modern definition] and had developed into something inhuman, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly powerful[definitely the modern, U.S., definition]? I might seem some old-world savage animal, only the more dreadful and disgusting for our common likeness–a foul creature to be incontinently slain."

18 years later and NONE the wiser: "The forgotten lesson of 9/11: Political misinformation long predates Trump" https://www.salon.com/2019/09/10/the-forgotten-lesson-of-9-11-political-misinformation-long-predates-trump/^^ But let's focus on Trump's sharpie for weeks on end.

A lot has been written about America's car-centric infrastructure and mentality at the expense of pedestrians and public spaces. However, few have tied it to our cultural rot (exception: MB and a few others). And like clockwork, most end their analysis with an 11th hour solution (once again, MB excepted). But not this writer.... https://theoutline.com/post/7919/vision-zero-bike-deaths-nyc-2019?zd=2&zi=d2pxtpap^^ Key excerpts: "And here, curiously, we find a great undiagnosed cause at the root of our supposed cultural malaise: fragmentation and atomization; loneliness and disconnection; declines in communal values and an absence of interpersonal interaction."Writer's Conclusion: "I have little hope for change, though."

I hope yr not being sarcastic. If so, yr days here are numbered. I never asked for an academic or peer-reviewed reference. But since you provided what seemed to be more than just personal experience, some sort of supporting link wd have helped. Thanks.

Bad-

Yes, Wms is terrific.

Mil-

For those who don't know: I cover the rise of the car culture in DAA, ch. 7.

@Rosegarden--indeed, the U.S. military and "intelligence" services certainly are. My brother has been battling Lyme Disease for over 8 years and at times has been nearly incapacitated. He's a physician with a fairly Waferesque outlook, but even he was astonished when I told him the story of how the military experimented with tick born diseases in the open air right offshore from Connecticut and Long Island. I recommended Bitten to him--every American should read it.

Here is an instance of hustling on the part of protestant Christian ministries, specifically Imperial Valley Ministries. The Ministry hustled homeless people with promises of a clean bed and food to panhandle for the ministry leaders and forcing them to turn over any cards such as licenses, ids and even taking their welfare benefits, again to enrich the ministry leaders. Pretty ugly situation, very much in line with what American has always (for the most part) been.

I met someone with this allergy years ago and I was like, wtf? How can you be allergic to meat? We're made of meat! But it turns out to be "red" meat like beef and pork. Birds are OK and if you do some research you'll find that the reason people don't become allergic to themselves is that monkey/ape meat doesn't have the protein that you become allergic to. Can you imagine the average American without their burgers?

So tonite is the big debate among 10 Democratic candidates. 10 Democratic turkeys, wd be more accurate. Who gives a shit what these lame-ass buffoons have to say? And what happened to Tulsi Gabbard, and how in God's name did she ever think she had a chance? Does she have Punjabi (Hindu) food in her head? Tulsi had as much chance as Lorenzo Riggins, or Chrystal Walraven. Or Marianne Williamson, a New Age-Oprah clown, who was also disqualified from the debate. What kind of country throws up douche bags and morons as presidential candidates?

Jeff, we need an Ode to Tulsi, commemorating her political demise. Tulsi, Schmulsi.

mb

Tulsi Gabbardyour sword in your scabbard--off to war you went.But as there is shit in your headyour campaign was soon deadand nothing more about your fuck-ass political 'career' was said.You will vote in absentiaonly evidence for your dementiaand on your shoes I will pee;the progs will be frustratedbecause on your Guccis I urinatedfor all of America to see.

Speaking of Thomas Piketty, I came upon this article that discusses his new book and there was a brief discussion of Piketty’s theory about why left-wing parties eventually turned away from their former policies and became more elitist on economic issues.

“To a large extent, traditionally left parties have changed because their original social-democratic agenda was so successful in opening up education and high-income possibilities to the people who in the 1950s and 1960s came from modest backgrounds. These people, the “winners” of social democracy, continued voting for left-wing parties but their interests and worldview were no longer the same as that of their (less-educated) parents. The parties’ internal social structure thus changed—the product of their own political and social success. In Piketty’s terms, they became the parties of the “Brahmin left” (La gauche Brahmane), as opposed to the conservative right-wing parties, which remained the parties of the “merchant right” (La droite marchande).”

This seems to fit with Thomas Frank’s analysis of the transformation of the Democratic Party in the United States but could also apply to formerly left-wing parties in other parts of the world. It is not surprising that populists are winning elections all over the world today.

Since my 94 year old mother still believes the Democratic Party will save the country (I didn't tell her Chuck Schumer was sorry that John Bolton was fired) I endured last night's 3 hour debate. Oy, everyone was looking for the 10 second sound bite to embarrass Biden's mental faculties. Somehow that worthless piece of puke was able to hold it together making the other candidates look mean. To be honest, I missed Tulsi. She would have continued to attack Kamala Harris's appalling record as AG in California. Of course, no mention of defense spending, Israel, overthrowing Central American governments which caused people to flee, conditions in the concentration camps (I'm sorry-holding facilities), gutting environmental regulations, the opioid crisis, poverty (In Obarfa's 8 years he did not say the word poverty once), homelessness (there are homeless on nearly every corner in Philadelphia's center city), lack of jobs with benefits, media control, and banking conglomerates. Hair Trumpf is sure to win a second term. Poor Dems, don't they realize the American soul is dark and so long as Hair makes life hell for people of color he's unbeatable? My mom still likes Biden. I had to agree. After all, I can't fight with a 94 year old woman.

Today is Friday the Thirteenth, what better time for MB to sing an ode to Sarah, to the tune Come Fly With Me:

COME FLOE WITH ME

Come floe with me, let's floe let's floe awayIf you can use some exotic boozeThere's a bar in Prudhoe BayCome floe with me, let's floe let's floe awayCome floe with me, let's float past Todd and waveIn Wafer land, there's a seer that canAnd he'll toot his flute for youCome floe with me, let's take off in the blueOnce I get you down there,Where decline is rarefiedWe'll just slideStarry eyedOnce I get you down thereI'll be holding you so nearYou may hear the Wafers cheerJust because we're togetherWeather wise it's such a lovely dayJust say the words, we’ll see SiberiaWay past the Prudhoe BayIt's perfect, an Alaskan rendezvous, they sayCome floe with meLet's floe, let's floe away

@alex carter==now we just need to release about a billion of those meat allergy-causing ticks over the U.S. and Europe and we might be able to "save" the Amazon rain forest from being burned down to create pastureland!

@Dan--bravo, you are a better man than I. I could never watch those "debates" without slitting my wrists--I usually wait for Jeffrey St. Clair's next day roundup, if only for the entertainment value. Your mom's view on Biden confirms what I've read--that most of his support is coming from seniors who seek a return to "normalcy." One of the saddest aspects of our system is that young adults, who have the most to lose, don't usually vote and the one time they did show up at the polls--for Obarfa in '08--they got immediately shafted.

Fascinating interpretation of Shane, though I must admit to loving that film. (What does that say about me?)

I understand your point about the apparent paucity of an intellectual life in the film as a reflection of contemporary US culture. But given the nature of frontier life, what appeal would it have held for American intellectuals of that era anyway? Most of them gravitated to Europe, after all (e.g. Henry James, Edward MacDowell, et al). The ones that didn’t often faced indifference or incomprehension at home. Which brings me to my next point: the glorification of American individualism cuts both ways. Today we celebrate figures who became “rocks” of the intelligentsia precisely because their genius made them isolated, sometimes seemingly self-sufficient, and often tragic figures in life. Consider Emily Dickinson, H. L. Mencken, Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Henry Darger, or John Barton Wolgamot. I could go on.

Your observations about the American character are spot on. Thank you for your scholarship.

"American liberals and progressives talk a bit about white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege etc, but one thing I never hear them talk about is American privilege: the ability their nationality gives them to have a relationship with this world that the rest of us do not have.

American privilege is reassuring yourself that there are problems enough at home without worrying about the trillions your government’s war machine is spending terrorizing the world and encircling the planet with military bases."

I love your "Ode to Lorenzo"! Even though you are just messing around, I can see that you must be an actual poet, based on your nice line breaks and the overall flow of the poem. And thanks for the nice new word - I really like "dwine", though had to look it up.

One of the things that made me laugh in Lorenzo's interview was how he pronounced Mcdoubles as "MACKdoubles". Hahaha. Needless to say, I don't mean it at all in a racist way, it just sounds funny to hear him say it like that. So maybe you should write it that way instead of just Mcdoubles!

It would be great if we could combine all of our Wafer mascots, like Lorenzo and Shaneka, etc., into one brilliant song, perhaps in the style of Bob Dylan. It sounds like we have some very talented musicians here, in addition to the many fine writers. Humor aside (and contrary to that one book reviewer who taxed Dr. B with using too many "personal anecdotes"), these people really do personify and crystallize the collapse of our society in a way that no amount of scholarly footnotes could ever quite match.

While I'm waiting for news from the new school year at Evergreen, I'm foregoing any time viewing presidential schmesidential debates, and instead am dancing the Wah-Tulsi every morning when I get up (out of post-its for the mirror).

Post-Its very impt for upkeep of Wafer morale. I suggest: TULSI IS A DOUCHE BAG. But dancing is also gd.

Megan-

What I'd like 2c is a Wafer version of Mt. Rushmore. But who wd be our 4 heroes, as there are so many to choose from? Lorenzo, Shaneka, Freddie Watson (guy who fucked a goat), Chrystal Walraven, Brittany Carulli...the mind boggles. Plus, an anthology of Wafer poetry might also be a gd idea.

Which brings me to this article I found in Global Research, by S Brian Willson. https://www.globalresearch.ca/usa-pretend-unmasked/5688927

He was evidently a draftee to Vietnam, and before going, had been thoroughly indoctrinated, like most folks, into the fictional USA we all know and love. Well, he got to Vietnam and very quickly had the blinders torn off. This article is about "USA Pretend" - the USA Americans like to think exists, vice what actually exists.

After reading about the prosecution of people burning US flags, he had this to say: "Depressed, I pondered how it is that one could be arrested for burning a piece of cloth – even a national symbol – that represented an official policy of criminally burning innocent human beings, including large numbers of young children, while the pilot-perpetrators were commended, and whom, in my duties I was protecting? Initially suicidal, I had difficulty wrapping my head around this dystopian nightmare. I was in psychic shock from extreme cognitive dissonance."

Another quote: "Could it be that virtually everything I was taught by my parents, community, school, church, and political leaders in terms of factual history, morality, ethics, and rational thinking about “America” was the opposite of what had been represented? How could that be?"

Sadly, after a long article detailing the craziness, he ends with trying to figure out how to get folks to rise up and change the situation. After all these years, you'd think he'd realize Americans don't want to know the truth.

Every time. Evrrrry time I shop @ Walmart (I do a fair amount, food stamps all, fuckit I'll comply) it's a freak show. Was recently gifted a Target card where I rarely shop. The market share between the two stores is intriguing. On the one hand you have barely sentient blobs of plasma forever standing in the middle of the aisle talking on the phone when I gotta catch the bus while the Target shopper is ever so slightly on a higher rung of the financial ladder. I saw shiny new SUV's, women who are attractive in stretch pants, the frigging cart actually rolls, shiny floors, wide aisles, prices markedly higher for the same crap, in sum the kind of place for someone disgusted by the typical WM fuckup. When I finished I stood out front smoked and observed. There's a might haughty look on these faces, they're smug, self satisfied and though considered smart they're dumb as rocks. It's the difference between wanton stupidity and ignorance vs willful ignorance and marginal affluence. I can (barely) tolerate the first, the other to me is insufferable and shld b beaten.

The Spy on Netflix with Sacha Baron Cohen in a dramatic role is very good. Who Is America on Showtime is a Wafer must see.

I have a question about an issue that has long puzzled me: the apparent friendly relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In my daily wanderings around the internet I stumbled upon the Dönmeh and Sabbateans (followers of Sabbatai Tsevi who claimed he was the Jewish messiah and seemed to be mentally unstable – ya think?). I have absolutely no idea if any of this is legitimate, especially what the first article relates. However, it would go a long way to explaining the inexplicable (much of the info has to do with the Dönmeh in Turkey – like everything else, what a tangled web). Do you know anything about this or, if not, would you give an opinion as to its validity?

Italiano - While reading about the awakening of soldier Wilson to the truth of what his world had done to him and what it was really like, I was reminded of "The Matrix" and the need for all Americans to pledge allegiance to the flag by taking the red pill, representing a life of hard truths and difficult realities. The chances of that happening, of course, is less than nil. Americans live in willful ignorance and object strongly when woken from their cocoons. Feelings of safety and blissful ignorance are more important than freedom of thought and reality.

Haven't shopped at Wal-Mart in over 30 years. Not only does it exploit workers but encourages them to make up for what they don't get in benefits and pay by applying for food stamps and welfare. Anyone who still thinks America is a democracy or republic in which leaders are responsive to the public has been taking the blue pill too long.

Zvi was a 17C figure who decided he was the messiah, got a lot of Jews all worked up (quite understandable given the historical context). He finally converted to Islam; the donmeh (I think it means converts, in Turkish) were those who followed his example. I can't imagine any of this has any relationship to current Israeli-Saudi relations, but I'm not an expert in this field. Check this out, in any case:

"This extraordinary film, Honeyland, illustrates the principles of #degrowth and post-capitalist ontology better than any text could ever hope to do. And it was the most-awarded film at the Sundance festival this year."

Wafers: Bit o' nostalgia here: I usta hang out (1975-80) at most of the places mentioned in this article:

https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2019-09-13/

And Larry (Ferlinghetti) just hit 100! (I don't think I ever met him, tho; he was a friend of friends). The guy just knocked out another novel. Here I think I'm winding down, and he's just gearing up.

Great days...I was writing the Reenchantment bk on a wing and a prayer, sitting at the Café Trieste and elsewhere, never imagining it wd make the NYT best-seller list. Yolanda, the owner, wd rest her chin in her hand (elbow on the bar) and moan, "Che cosa faccio!" Gorgeous maritime mural at the back (Sicily?), and a jukebox with opera on it; I usta put coins in to hear "Martha," by Flotow. Here's the most famous aria of it, by the world's greatest singer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVDD5CoMni8

I tell ya, those days were un gusto di miele, tho I didn't realize it at the time. Youth is wasted on the youth, said Shaw.

Another study finding a link between mental illness, young people and social media. “After weighing factors including mental health history, the research found that the youngsters who spent more than three hours a day on social media were more likely to report ‘internalizing’ their problems, including depression, anxiety and loneliness, along with symptoms like aggression and antisocial behavior, compared with adolescents who didn't use social media, according to the study.”

About Me

Morris Berman is well known as an innovative cultural historian and social critic. He has taught at a number of universities in Europe and North America, and has held visiting endowed chairs at Incarnate Word College (San Antonio), the University of New Mexico, and Weber State University. During 1982-88 he was the Lansdowne Professor in the History of Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Berman won the Governor’s Writers Award for Washington State in 1990, the Rollo May Center Grant for Humanistic Studies in 1992, and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity (from the Media Ecology Association) in 2013. He is the author of a trilogy on the evolution of human consciousness–-The Reenchantment of the World (1981), Coming to Our Senses (1989), and Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (2000)–and in 2000 his Twilight of American Culture was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times Book Review. Dr. Berman relocated to Mexico in 2006, and during 2008-9 was a Visiting Professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City.